This extensive Handbook addresses a range of contemporary issues related to Prison Tourism across the world. It is divided into seven sections: Ethics, Human Rights and Penal Spectatorship; Carceral Retasking, Curation and Commodification of Punishment; Meanings of Prison Life and Representations of Punishment in Tourism Sites; Death and Torture in Prison Museums; Colonialism, Relics of Empire and Prison Museums; Tourism and Operational Prisons; and Visitor Consumption and Experiences of Prison Tourism. The Handbook explores global debates within the field of Prison Tourism inquiry; spanning a diverse range of topics from political imprisonment and persecution in Taiwan to interpretive programming in Alcatraz, and the representation of incarcerated Indigenous peoples to prison graffiti. This Handbook is the first to present a thorough examination of Prison Tourism that is truly global in scope. With contributions from both well-renowned scholars and up-and-coming researchers in the field, from a wide variety of disciplines, the Handbook comprises an international collection at the cutting edge of Prison Tourism studies. Students and teachers from disciplines ranging from Criminology to Cultural Studies will find the text invaluable as the definitive work in the field of Prison Tourism.

Jacqueline Z. Wilson is an Associate Professor at Federation University Australia in the Collaborative Research Centre in Australian History. Her research focuses on the intersections between heritage, state care and institutionalization. She is the author of Prison: Cultural Memory and Dark Tourism, the first national study of prison tourist sites in Australia. Sarah Hodgkinson is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Criminology, University of Leicester. Her research interests include crime-related dark tourism (in particular prison and Holocaust tourism), Holocaust representation and memorialization, the social construction of evil, forensic mental health, and homicide. Justin Piché is Associate Professor in the Department of Criminology at the University of Ottawa and Co-managing Editor of the Journal of Prisoners on Prisons. Justin was awarded the 2012 Aurora Prize from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the 2016 Young Researcher Award from the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Ottawa. Kevin Walby is Associate Professor and Chancellor’s Research Chair, Department of Criminal Justice, University of Winnipeg, Canada. He is co-editor of National Security, Surveillance, and Terror: Canada and Australia in Comparative Perspective with R. Lippert, I. Warren and D. Palmer (forthcoming with Palgrave in 2017).

“This collection covers conceptual, empirical, and methodological aspects of a field of study that focuses on ‘prison and jail tourism, penal museums, and other sites of carceral memorialization around the world.’ … In bringing together this array of international scholars and administrators, many of whom have published previously on these topics but too frequently in obscure or difficult-to-locate journals, the editors have surely performed a public, as well as academic, service.” (Russ Immarigeon, Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Books, clcjbooks.rutgers.edu, July, 2017)

“The word ‘comprehensive’ is often over-used, but The Palgrave Handbook of Prison Tourism really is the most comprehensive collection of works on the topic ever published. Bringing together all the leading international experts in the field, from a range of academic disciplines, the editors have succeeded in producing the definitive handbook on prison museums and prison tourist sites. A phenomenal achievement.” (Yvonne Jewkes, Research Professor in Criminology, School of Applied Social Science, University of Brighton, UK)

“Prisons are Other places where social justice and institutional hegemony is signified. Yet, former prisons as tourist attractions now offer a punishment gaze where heritage custodians take charge of a ‘penal spectatorship’. Incarceration transcends cultures and nations and, as such, (his)stories of our carceral past are played out within contemporary ‘prison tourism’. This seminal reference volume offers comprehensive and critical international accounts of our carceral memorialization and, consequently, is undoubtedly the ‘go-to’ text for scholarly enquires into prison tourism within the broader visitor economy.” (Dr Philip Stone, Executive Director: Institute for Dark Tourism Research, University of Central Lancashire, UK)

“The Palgrave Handbook of Prison Tourism is an international collection on prison tourism that provides a timely global context in an extensive offering of forty-eight chapters from key researchers in the field. This major work extends theoretical discussions on the sociological and political implications of the phenomenon, historical legacies of state power and colonialism as well as analysis of curatorial, heritage and tourism management perspectives. In doing so the authors raise serious questions about the ongoing impacts of incarceration and the ways in which these former sites of imprisonment are interpreted, visited, promoted as destinations and ultimately understood in the present day.” (Professor Keir Reeves, Federation University Australia)